Sometimes, creating a beautiful home is your top priority.
You work your butt off to make it happen. You eat ramen noodles and dollar burgers for three years straight to afford every purchase. You spend almost every evening and weekend shaping your house into the beautiful home of your dreams. You never go anywhere without paint in your hair and sawdust on your clothes.
And it is good.
But other times, you just simply aren’t feeling it. You want to work on projects in theory, but you simply can’t make yourself care. Instead, you pin some ideas on Pinterest for your next dream home project and then spend three hours binge watching The Americans on Amazon Prime. You take in the view from your back porch with a Moscow Mule.
And this, my friends, it also good. (Or at least it can be.)
Ryan and I have hit this point in our lives. It took three homes and three rental properties and a barn and a kid. It’s the first time in ten years that we don’t currently have a giant project – or a next giant project – keeping us up at night busy.
It’s weird. And it’s also nice.
But I’m feeling a little restless. Like I’m in a little bit of a funk. There are certainly projects I’d like to tackle in the house – but I’m having a hard time making them a priority. I make lists that go un-checked.
I think this is a delicate balancing act. It’s simply not sustainable for most people (ourselves included) to be working on our home 100 percent of the time forever. It’s been a pretty crazy ten years and we have earned a bit of a rest.
But, we also need to prioritize and work on some of the projects that will really improve our home and our lives. We could ignore them forever – but we don’t want to. In the past, we’ve waited until we were selling a house to finally do all those projects that make a world of difference. But there’s no house sale in the plans for this house. So, what’s going to force us to actually do all those projects.
I know that many of you struggle with this, too. You are busy and you are tired and you are probably pinching pennies. It’s not always easy to make your home projects a priority in your lives and budget.
Here are a few ways I work through a home “funk” to get my mojo back.
Lean in.
You can’t always force yourself to be productive. We all need a break now and then. Sometimes, the best strategy for a funk is just to “lean in.”
By that, I mean that you can give yourself permission to really go with the flow and take it easy for a bit. Don’t beat yourself up over your lack of project completion. This about giving yourself a hefty load of grace and time.
Read a book. Take a nap. Bake cookies. And then enjoy it. You’ve earned it.
Start small.
When you are feeling “funky,” I like to start with a small project that really needs to be completed. It should be something that can be completed quickly and inexpensively. I know we all have dozens of these types of projects at any given time. It can give you a small win that can help propel you to more projects and success.
Because if there’s one thing I know, one project begets another.
For example, our closets didn’t have any storage systems inside for months. So, we spent a day building shelves and creating spots for the stuff that needed a home. It was a fairly simple project that made a world of difference to the functionality of our home.
(And yes. The shelves still need painted. Get off my back.)
Fun first.
What’s a project that you actually love to do? What’s something you actually enjoy? These are great questions to ask yourself if you want to get back into the swing of home projects. Because if you like doing something, you are more likely to start and complete a project.
I like to organize, so cleaning and organizing is something that I actually have fun with. So organizing projects are a good place for me to begin getting productive.
Ryan loves being outside. So he’s been spending time in the yard and cleaning up areas of our property.
Make some tweaks.
It’s easy to think that the only worthwhile projects in your home are the giant renovation projects – the full kitchen remodel, the bathroom gut job or that huge room addition.
But when you aren’t feeling it, the best projects can be the small tweaks. Change out your bedding in your bedroom. Add some artwork to the wall. Update your mantel or decorative shelves. These are tweaks that can refresh a room and make you feel emboldened to do more.
Dream big.
If you can’t see the big picture, it’s hard to take the steps to get there. Ryan and I talk a lot about the big picture, and it gives us huge motivation to work toward those big dreams. And those dreams take time – so there’s no pressure to do it all right now.
By talking about what you really want to do in your home in 1 year, 5 years or 10 years, you are giving yourself permission to do the projects when you have the time and money to really do it the way you want. That means that your current projects may just be dreaming and creating a road map to get to the big projects down the road.
Give yourself margin.
As a pair of chronic home renovators, we have definitely caught ourselves pushing ourselves too hard for too long. But it’s far healthier for a person, family and couple to have margin in life.
This means building in plenty of rest into your project planning. It means having realistic expectations (for yourself and others). And it means actually enjoying and finding contentment in your home as it is right now – not waiting until it’s just perfect.
Because home is about more than perfection. Am I right?
Maybe all those home projects are your first priority right now. Or maybe not. Either way, let’s find the good and enjoy the process.
What do you do when you feel like you are in a home projects funk?
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Emmerey Rose says
Awesome post Kim! This made me think of making some home projects now. Thanks for the inspiration! By the way, how do you make home projects with a budget?
Lisa Hamel says
Great advice, as always! I know you are a busy woman, and I am so glad that you still find time to blog. Reading your posts is like catching up with an old friend…which, hopefully, sounds endearing rather than creepy.
Susan says
I guess I have ESP, as I already followed your advice about starting small. Last week I put away the winter bedding and brought out the spring/summer weight stuff and it worked – my spirits were revived ! Our new house build’s site work is being held up by rain and I also was being held up by rainy day doldrums. Now we’re on to bigger and better things – rain, rain – go AWAY !
Brie says
When I am in the midst of all the chaos of building and renos, I find myself wishing if only the reno were done, then i will have so much time to help out and volunteer for this or that amongst my community and neighbours. So when the renos are finished, and I feel that funk of needing another project, I try to remember that this is the time I said i would use for others and it’s time to follow through and use your house for helping others now and now I actually have time to sit on a evening committee or join a community sports team or make meals for others who are in that busier time, or just use the creative crafty juices for someone else’s house now.
Catherine Labrie says
Amazing post. This hit home so much for me. You can be in a funk but have a whole list of things to complete and dreams of what your house could look like if you had 40 hour days and no budget.
Kim Woodward says
Ha! If only we all had the time and money. Although, sometimes I think my problem is more motivation. 😉
Appreciate the comment.
Donna Baker says
Just rearranging my furniture can get my juices flowing. And you reminded me I’ve got some hobby lobby wall decor to get to for my kitchen. I think today will be fun. Happy Spring!
Meredith says
Great post, Kim! Good reminders for all of us. (And The Americans is totally binge-worthy!😁)
Cassie Bustamante says
i was in a major funk even though there is still plenty to do here… what always gets me out of it is stepping AWAY from pinterest and blogging and the overstimulation of inspiration and instead picking up some small thing i’ve intended to do, and finally do it. in general, just get moving… get up and away from technology and start moving… in any direction! 🙂